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La Mariola

“Maria si va cercando per Ravenna…” (“Wandering through Ravenna looking for Maria…”) This is a very old saying, used throughout Italy and it means looking for something that is under your eyes but which you cannot see.

The saying derives from two fragments of marble walled in the Municipal Civil Tower, built between the 11th and 12th centuries in Via Ponte Marino. These sculptures-reliefs represent a man on horseback (deriving from a Roman sarcophagus) with, behind him, the head of a veiled figure that seems to be a woman, the so-called “Mariola di Ravenna”.

An incredible amount of stories, even sung by minstrels, have unravelled around Mariola and the horseman starting from the 1400s.